For businesses
Receiving enquiries — why acceptance costs you something, what you can see before deciding, how to keep a queue from rotting, and what unanswered enquiries do to your standing.
Enquiries arrive because somebody chose you. Not because your name was on a list that got sprayed with a requirement — because a verified buyer looked at what you publish and decided you were the one worth paying to write to.
What you do with that queue is most of what determines whether Bidancer works for you.
What receiving involves
Deciding
What you can see before you commit, and how to triage a queue quickly.
Assigning an owner
Every accepted enquiry belongs to a named person. Why that is not optional.
Closing
Ending it, rating the buyer you dealt with, and earning credits for doing so.
Your response score
What the queue you ignore looks like to the next buyer.
Why accepting costs credits
Because a free accept is not a decision, and a queue of free accepts is an inbox.
Paying to accept does three things. It makes you read the requirement before taking it. It tells the sender that somebody committed to them. And it is what allows the sender's own fee to be refunded when you decline — the economics only work if both sides have something at stake.
Declining costs nothing. A fast no is a good outcome, for you and for them.
The three ways to respond
| Costs you | Costs the sender | Your standing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accept | Credits | Their fee stands | Improves — you engaged |
| Decline | Nothing | Refunded | Unharmed — a decision is a decision |
| Ignore | Nothing | Refunded | Damaged — recorded as missed |
The row to notice is the third. Doing nothing is not the neutral option it feels like.
Getting enquiries worth having
The quality of what arrives is largely set by what you publish. A business with thin listings receives vague enquiries, because vague is all a buyer could infer.
- Product signals — specifications and variants, so buyers enquire about the right thing
- Service signals — scope and delivery terms, so scope is not the first question
- Franchise offerings — models and investment bands, so unsuitable applicants self-select out
Keeping the queue healthy
Sent and received are different queues
Your business can be on either side, and often is on both. The two are kept separate: enquiries you received and are deciding on, and enquiries you sent to somebody else.
They need different attention. The received queue has a clock on it.
After you send
What you can see while an enquiry is pending, what changes the moment it is accepted, what comes back if it is declined or ignored, and when to stop waiting.
Deciding to accept
What you can see before spending credits on an enquiry, how to triage a queue in minutes, and the signals that separate a buyer worth answering from one who is shopping.